RE: Including MathML in XHTML documents (Scanned]

Hi Kevin

Cheers.

We've lecturing staff writing learning materials that we'd also like to be printable. Recently, we've had authors producing maths (e.g. transforming formulae) which have to be correctly presented on web pages amongst the course text (inline and block), which also have to be accessible (to devices such as screen readers). We'd also like to incorporate SVG graphs, possibly generated from the MathML and including generated text equivalents if possible.

We'd intend using CSS to control web presentation, and probably XSL-FO for transforming to PDF for print.

There doesn't appear to be a browser consensus on how MathML should be included (and we have to work with some web-page tools for the moment that don't produce XHTML yet). We've assumed that XML namespaces were the way to go, but there's a lot of legacy issues and non-standard approaches that we expect will be obsolete soon (<object/>, XML islands etc.). I've read the XHTML+MathML+SVG profile document before, with interest, but I think that there was some technical difficulty in making it work across all the browsers and plug-ins we were supporting at the time.

Possibly and eventually, we'd like to have DHTML style interactivity (making elements highlightable/draggable and setting up event handlers in Java[ECMA]Script), so you could change the subject of a formula by dragging and dropping (like some web-based application offer now) by manipulating the DOM.

SMIL might be useful for coordinating animated equation step work-throughs in conjunction with graph generation.

We'd need the authoring tools to be usable for staff without a computing background, although some are quite familiar with tools such as MathType.

Having said all this, we have to work with limited resources, so we'd like to be sure that we're developing along the right lines to meet with future standards, and building on the work of experts and enthusiasts where possible. The priorities for us for now are accurate, accessible and reliable display of mathematical equations within web pages that are relatively simple to author (tool-friendly).


Tavis

Tavis Reddick
Publishing Technologist
Fife College
t-reddick@fife.ac.uk  

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin E Kelly [mailto:kekelly@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: 10 January 2005 15:18
To: Tavis Reddick
Cc: public-cdf@w3.org; public-cdf-request@w3.org
Subject: Re: Including MathML in XHTML documents (Scanned]


Tavis, 

Thanks for the question. 

Yes, we are looking at MathML as a candidate for Compound Document by Inclusion documents and specifically the XHTML SVG MathML profile outlined in the DTD Masayasu developed (http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-XHTMLplusMathMLplusSVG-20020809/ <http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-XHTMLplusMathMLplusSVG-20020809/> ).   

However, the initial focus of the group is Compound Document by Reference and then issues, and potentially a recommendation, on Compound Document by Inclusion will be worked on  which this profile including MathML would fall under.  Is this adequate and approporate for your needs?  Are there some compound document by reference examples for MathML we should be looking at sooner?   

Thanks,
Kevin
--------------------------------------------
Kevin E. Kelly
IBM, Software Group
Software Standards
Office 919.254.7036
Cell 919.332.0614
Fax 919.254.7427 



"Tavis Reddick" <t-reddick@fife.ac.uk>
Sent by: public-cdf-request@w3.org 

01/10/2005 07:01 AM To
<public-cdf@w3.org>
cc
Subject
Including MathML in XHTML documents

	




Hi CDF group

Is MathML to be considered by the CDF group?

Tavis Reddick
Publishing Technologist
Fife College
t-reddick@fife.ac.uk

Received on Monday, 10 January 2005 16:07:02 UTC